Website powered by
Tony Pommells
3D Character Artist
Home page
Resume
Store
Prints

Lightsaber - Technical Art UE5

Since I had two weeks to work on this project, I used Maya to create the hilt itself quickly and Zbrush for minor breakup.

Since I had two weeks to work on this project, I used Maya to create the hilt itself quickly and Zbrush for minor breakup.

I textured using substance painter, keeping in mind that I'd be editing these textures in Unreal Engine down the line.

I textured using substance painter, keeping in mind that I'd be editing these textures in Unreal Engine down the line.

Even though there was very little detail done on the hilt, since I was taking it into substance, I figured I'd add something (the scratches here and there).

Even though there was very little detail done on the hilt, since I was taking it into substance, I figured I'd add something (the scratches here and there).

At the beginning of the project, even though I wasn't going to have the inside of the blade shown in-engine, I still wanted to get a cool shot of the hilt coming apart. I ended up bashing a bunch of inner mechanism designs together.

I wasn't too concerned with the total tri-count of the mesh, so I reduced the polycount to about 29k tris. I figured I'd delete unseen, and unused, faces.

I wasn't too concerned with the total tri-count of the mesh, so I reduced the polycount to about 29k tris. I figured I'd delete unseen, and unused, faces.

I followed a guide made by Ellouisa Lucy, where imported masks from Substance Painter in order to do things like control color and even add dirt detail.

The material shader graph for the lightsaber hilt.

The material shader graph for the lightsaber hilt.

Material instance for the lightsaber material, I wanted to capture the slight darkening on the edges of the blade while also giving it some chaos.

The material graph for the lightsaber blade.

The material graph for the lightsaber blade.

An in-engine visual

The blueprints for the lightsaber itself

The blueprints for the lightsaber itself

I actually expanded on the third person base blueprints and just kept adding/tweaking when needed.

I actually expanded on the third person base blueprints and just kept adding/tweaking when needed.

Since I imported some animations, I needed to recreate blend trees to keep things together.

Since I imported some animations, I needed to recreate blend trees to keep things together.

Hi all

This was my final assignment for the Technical Art Course by Aaron Aikman. We had to choose to focus on one of four topics and I chose to focus on two, blueprints and shaders. I really loved looking through the documentation (shocking I know) to really delve into materials and blueprints. Since we had only two weeks to complete this assignment, I had to decide between using Blender and Maya and went with Maya since I could model much faster there. After, I went ahead and did some minor details in Zbrush before baking and texturing in Substance Painter.

Once I got the lightsaber in-engine I immediately got to work on the blade material. After blocking that in, I started on the blueprints part of things, slowly veering into animation blend trees too. It was a challenge creating the blueprints for both the saber and the character on their own but, it was just as challenging having everything work together. From breaking the characters jump to properly blending different animations, this project taught me a lot.

In the end, I pushed through and was able to get sound and even the smear effect on the blade! Honestly I'm happy that I reached the goals I set out for myself and I can't wait to jump into my next UE project!

Also I wanted to give special thanks to Aaron Aikman for being such an incredible instructor:
https://www.artstation.com/guerillatactics
Also to Ellouisa Lucy for answering my questions about her brilliant method:
https://www.artstation.com/ellouisa_w

Report